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Greenlee: Chew on this

Every now and then Boulder city and county elected officials suffer from an entirely preventable eating disorder. It's called biting off more than they can chew.

The city wants to "end homelessness." While laudable, it's impossible. Situations that create homeless populations are as varied as those who find themselves without a permanent address. There are chronically homeless people and those only transitionally homeless and to conclude that it's possible to end homelessness leads to endless frustration. It also leads to dubious policies that defy logic and economic realities.

The recent dustup concerning Boulder Housing Partners desire to build a 31-unit housing project in north Boulder is just one example of the unrealistic goal of ending homelessness that becomes inextricably tied to institutionalized public policy. The only solution is to abandon unrealistic goals along with modifying or replacing the tools and process that are currently employed to achieve them.

Akin to the problem of homelessness there's a related and entirely questionable goal of insisting that 10 percent of Boulder's housing stock must be "permanently affordable." Fellow Camera opinion columnists Steve Pomerance and Sean Maher recently addressed the issue with Pomerance taking a rather draconian approach to solving the dilemma while Maher pointed out the potential of creating a community whose population would consist of either the very wealthy or the very poor. Once again, policy makers compel outcomes that have entirely unrealistic expectations of ever being achieved.

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Then there's the stated goal of attaining "zero waste" as if every ounce of detritus we encounter has a proper and economically viable opportunity to be recycled. The goal may have merit and the concept of recycling enjoys tremendous public support although achieving the zero-waste objective has economic consequences that never seem to be fully accounted for. In 2009, for example, the city approved the purchase of a 10-acre home for its involvement in the ReSource Conservation program at 6400 Arapahoe at a cost in excess of $10 million. At the same time council approved a trash tax hike to pay for it and last year committed over a third of its entire annual trash tax income to help pay for the project. Additional funds will also be required to complete Eco-Cycle's grand plan of moving many of its current facilities to the Arapahoe site although funding for the effort has not been fully revealed. It's just another example of how a reasonable goal gets caught up in expensive and problematic public policy.

One of the more expensive goals the city and county have collectively embarked upon involves public transportation -- one of the most expensive of all infrastructure projects imaginable. But because local policies dictate that improved transportation facilities should consist of "multi-modal" alternatives an incredible amount of current and future financial resources will be devoted to marginal mobility improvements. This has already happened to the Arapahoe (Highway 7) widening project currently being constructed. Originally the Colorado Department of Transportation wanted to build 4-lanes of roadway between 75th Street and Cherryvale Road. That effort was thwarted when both city and county officials insisted that a "bus only" lane had to be created for a portion of the extension rather than allowing the entire stretch to be used by all vehicles. George Gerstle, the county's transportation wizard, is reported to have suggested that not following CDOT's original plan might help encourage more people to use public transportation instead of relying on their own vehicles. The conclusion one can assume is that some public officials believe making roadway improvements should be converted to discovering ways to frustrate drivers to the extent that they will seek out public transportation. Can we therefore also assume, from this rather shocking perspective, that certain policy goals are continually manipulated by public officials in order to achieve outcomes that are not achievable or well illuminated for the public to fully understand or even agree with?

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